Atheists band together to fight for acceptance in the military

A few days before Easter at the MacDill Air Force Base chapel, in a room adorned with pictures of the cross of Jesus and posters of Mary, Galen Matson talks about being an atheist in the proverbial foxhole.

Well, not a foxhole exactly.

Matson, a civilian contractor working for U.S. Central Command, was at Forward Operating Base Salerno, near the city of Khost in Afghanistan in 2006, when 170 mm Katyusha rockets began landing on the base, exploding with a concussion so powerful that he suffered permanent hearing loss.

Matson, 30, who grew up as a Protestant, says he was stunned during the attack. But his thoughts never turned toward praying to a higher power for safety.

"It did not occur to me to think of God," says Matson. "If God got involved in something on that small a scale, we wouldn't be in this thing to begin with."

Matson is a member of a small group of active-duty military and contractors dedicated to their atheist belief system. It is one of several groups around the country that meet at places such as Ft. Bragg in North Carolina, West Point and aboard ships such as the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

At MacDill, the group started in January, led by Jason Torpy, president of Washington, D.C.-based "Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers" — a national organization dedicated to what they see as protecting the rights of atheists and others.

Meeting in a chapel room where Catholic Sunday School classes are held, Matson and the others talk about what life is like in an organization where acknowledgement of the Lord is ever-present.

It begins in basic training, says Staff Sgt. Brandon Crilley, who grew up as a Protestant in Ohio.

On Sunday mornings, for instance, Crilley, 26, says that those who do not go to church services have to stay behind and clean the barracks.

"I can understand why they don't want you just hanging out in your bunk, but why not give you an alternative?" he asks.

Crilley, one of the two active-duty personnel at the meeting, says the group formed to provide companionship, a place to vent and a way to get the message across that even in the military, where most functions are accompanied by an invocation of some sort, there are those who do not believe.

For Master Sgt. Christopher Brown, 41, being an atheist is challenging at times both on and off base.

Growing up in a devout Lutheran family in California, he likened telling his own family about his belief system to coming out of the closet.

Attendance at this meeting is sparse. Aside from Brown, Matson and Crilley, there is Crilley's wife, Ubat, a civilian; Allen Szczepek, a retired Marine and the group's organizer; John Keiffer, a Vietnam vet and leading activist in the atheist community who has taken on Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, among others.

Across the military, a little less than 4 percent of service members identify themselves as atheist or agnostic, according to the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, an interagency organization created in 1971 to deal with issues brought up during the civil rights protest era.

The MacDill atheist group says it does not know how many like-minded individuals are on base. According to the base roster, the percentage "is very low," says 6th Air Mobility Wing Chaplain Maj. David Buttrick, via an email to the Tribune last month. "However, not all personnel report that data."

Those who have gathered have no major complaints about life at MacDill and praise Buttrick for doing what he can to accommodate the group.

"My role as Wing Chaplain" says Buttrick, "is to ensure accommodation for people of faith and those of no faith."

There has been nothing close to the controversy on other bases. Last year, dozens of service members at Fort Eustis were punished for not attending one of the "The Commanding General's Spiritual Fitness Concerts" — an evangelical Christian music event. Trouble also arose last year at Ft. Bragg, where a Christian concert last year called "Rock The Fort" drew complaints.

Atheists at MacDill say they don't have a problem with the religious icons in the meeting room.

"It reminds me of growing up," says Szczepek.

They are more concerned with getting the word out about their organization and finding ways to provide deployed service members with the same streams of mail and candy and toiletries and reading materials provided by religious organizations.

Crilley says he wants atheists to "have the same opportunities for our group as they give to other organizations. That's the biggest thing."

His message to Buttrick:

"Help us put the word out there for our group the same as he does for other religious services, because he has access to advertising resources around base."

To Buttrick, assigning use of the chapel is a juggling act.

"We host over 270 events per month in our chapel facilities, and these organizations are both religious and nonreligious groups," he says.

As for Crilley's suggestion that the base do more to help the atheists get the word out, Buttrick said it is not financially feasible.

"The Chapel cannot financially support all of these groups in regards to advertising. I put that back on the groups themselves," he said. "In relationship to the (atheist) organization I have gladly reviewed and approved their flyers and placed them in our literature racks for distribution to the public. Additionally, I have a list of all (points of contact) for both religious and nonreligious groups so that when customers inquire I can point them in the right direction."

During this meeting the members accomplished two things.

They changed the name of their group to MASH — MacDill Atheists and Secular Humanists — and they planned a party, to be held on the beach at MacDill, for May 21, a date which a small group of Christians believe marks the Rapture.

haltman@tampatrib.com

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